A redirect plugin for WordPress makes it easy to make sure visitors land where you want them to. Without a plugin, all you can do is update the .htaccess file or change the settings in the wp-config.php file. But why should you go through that hassle when there’s a much easier way? That’s where redirect plugins come in.
A redirect on WordPress could be one of the best ways that you can make sure that your website design remains functional.
When a person visits a certain URL, with a redirect link it can be possible to redirect them to another page. This can be especially useful if you are shutting down page elements on your website or redirecting people to your main page from a squeeze page.
Managing all of these redirects can get difficult, especially if you are going to be doing this on multiple pages of your WordPress website and all within the HTML data of the site.
Redirect Methods:
1. Redirect With Metadata
One of the easiest redirect methods commonly used by WordPress developers is through the meta-refresh tag. By placing a meta-tag inside the header at the top of the page, you can easily redirect the page to a new URL. For example:
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="2;url=https://example.com/" />
In the example above, the page will be redirected to https://example.com/ after 2 seconds.
2. Redirect With .htaccess
One of the simplest ways to redirect traffic from one site to another is by using what is known as a .htaccess file, which gives you the ability to edit your apache web server configuration files through a text file, but you can only do this on a local machine and if you are connected via FTP, then you will not have the appropriate permissions or access which would result in being unable to edit these files.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(.\*)$ https://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
</IfModule>In the example above, the website https://www.example.com will be redirected to https://example.com with a 301 redirect.
A second common redirect could be the PHP redirect within the header function which can send a 301 redirect response. This is often a better option for improving page speed in redirects which can result in better search engine optimization.
3. Redirect With A Plugin
Rather than having to locate all of the spaces where you will have to insert a redirect link and then tracking all of the redirect links on your website, having the ability to easily track your redirects or set up a new redirect link on a new page can be a better option.
By installing a redirect plugin you can easily set up this redirect option on any page and use the preferred redirect option of your choice.
The Best WordPress Redirect Plugins:
WordPress redirect plugin is one of the most beneficial WordPress plugins that can create SEO-friendly redirects. By installing this specific kind of plugin in your WordPress, you will be able to track any user’s flow and create static redirect pages accordingly.
This way, you will have complete control over the way your visitors are going to navigate your website. So, if you think that it would be a good idea to use this functionality, then keep reading this article and find out what the best WordPress redirect plugins are.
Originally Published June 2018, updated Mar 09 2023
Table Of Contents:
301 & 302 Redirect Plugins:
Redirection
Total downloads: 5,000,000+
Five Star Ratings: 8,000+
A redirection plugin for WordPress that makes it simple to manage 301 redirections, keep track of 404 errors, and generally tidy up any loose ends your site may have. This can help reduce errors and improve your site ranking.
Features:
- Redirect manager.
- Conditional redirect: Login status, Browser, Referrer, Cookies, HTTP headers and Custom filter.
- Tracks 404 errors.
- Supports both Apache and Nginx.
- Import & export settings.
Easy Redirect Manager
Total downloads: 200,000+
Five Star Ratings: 460+
301 Redirects helps you manage and create 301 & 302 redirects for your WordPress site to improve SEO and visitor experience.
With a user-friendly interface, 301 Redirects is easy to install and configure.
Perfect for new sites or repairing links after re-organizing your existing WordPress content, or when your site has content that expires and you wish to avoid sending visitors to a 404 page.
Features:
- Choose from Pages, Posts, Custom Post types, Archives, and Term Archives from dropdown menu
- Or, set a custom destination URL!
- Retain query strings across redirects
- Super-fast redirection
- Import/Export feature for bulk redirects management
- Simple redirect stats so you know how much a redirection is used
Simple 301 Redirects
Simple 301 Redirects provides an easy method of redirecting requests to another page on your site or elsewhere on the web. It’s especially handy when you migrate a site to WordPress and can’t preserve your URL structure.
Total downloads: 200,000+
Five Star Ratings: 150+
By setting up 301 redirects from your old pages to your new pages, any incoming links will be seemlessly passed along, and their pagerank (or what-have-you) will be passed along with them.
Page Links To
The Page Links To plugin for WordPress allows users to set a custom URL or link for any post or page on their site. It has a simple user interface and is easy to use, and can be used with custom post types.
Total downloads: 200,000+
Five Star Ratings: 140+
Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin
Total downloads: 100,000+
Five Star Ratings: 140+
Easily redirect pages/posts or custom post types to another page/post or external URL by specifying the redirect URL and type (301, 302, 307, meta).
The Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin provides 301 redirects and post/page redirects on WordPress website.
Quick Redirects are useful when you have links from an old site that now come up 404 Not Found, and you need to have them redirect to a new location on the current site – as long as the old site and the current site have the same domain name. They are also helpful if you have an existing URL that you need to send some place else and you don’t want to create a Page or Post just to use the individual Page/Post Redirect option.
Features:
- Works with WordPress Nav Menus
- Works with WordPress Custom Post Types (select setting on options page)
- You can set a redirected page or menu item to open in a new window (Quick Redirects require Use jQuery? option to be set)
- You can add a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the page or menu item link for the redirect (Quick Redirects require Use jQuery? option to be set)
- You can completely re-write the URL for the redirect so it takes the place of the original URL (rewrite the href link)
- You can redirect without needing to create a Page or Post using Quick Redirects. This is useful for sites that were converted to WordPress and have old links that create 404 errors (see FAQs for more information).
- Destination URL can be to another WordPress page/post or any other website with an external URL.
- Request URL can be a full URL path, the post or page ID, permalink or page slug.
- Option Screen to set global overrides like turning off all redirects at once, setting a global destination link, make all redirects open in a new window, etc.
- View a summary of all redirected pages/posts, custom post types and Quick Redirects that are currently set up.
- Plugin Clean up functions for those who decide they may want to remove all plugin data on uninstall.
- Import/Export of redirects for backup, or to add bulk Quick Redirects.
- Built-in FAQs/Help feed that can be updated daily with relevant questions.
- Optional column for list pages to easily show if a page/post has a redirect set up and where it will redirect to.
- Helper functions for adding or deleting redirects programmatically (see ‘filters-hooks-helper_functions.txt’ file in plugin folder for help and usage).
404 Redirect Plugins:
All 404 Redirect to Homepage
Total downloads: 200,000+
Five Star Ratings: 80+
The 404 error pages hurt the rank of your site, this smart plugin is a simple solution to handle 404 error pages by using 301 redirect.
404 to 301 – Redirect, Log and Notify 404 Errors
Total downloads: 100,000+
Five Star Ratings: 260+
A WordPress plugin to avoid 404 page not found by redirecting all 404 errors to any page/post or custom link you specify via 301/302/307 redirect.
More Features:
- Monitor/log all errors.
- Exclude paths from errors.
- Email notification on all 404 errors.
- Will not irritate your visitors if they land on a non-existing page/url.
WP 404 Auto Redirect to Similar Post
Total downloads: 50,000+
Five Star Ratings: 100+
This plugin automatically redirects 404 pages to similar posts based on Title, Post Types & Taxonomies. If nothing similar is found, visitors will be redirected to the homepage or a custom URL.
Features:
- Automatically detect any 404.
- Automatically search a similar post based on multiple factors:
- Title
- Potential Post Type
- Potential Taxonomy
- If nothing similar is found, set your Fallback Behavior:
- Redirect to homepage
- Redirect to a custom URL
- Display the default 404 page
- Choose the redirection HTTP header status:
- 301 headers
- 302 headers
- Exclude Post Types from possible redirections.
- Exclude Taxonomies from possible redirections.
- Exclude Posts based on a custom post meta.
- Exclude Terms based on a custom term meta.
- Display the Debug Console instead of being redirected (Admin).
- Preview possible redirection from the administration panel.
- Monitor/log all errors.
- Exclude paths from errors.
- Email notification on all 404 errors.
- Will not irritate your visitors if they land on a non-existing page/url.
HTTPS/SSL Redirect Plugins:
Really Simple SSL
Total downloads: 2,000,000+
Five Star Ratings: 600+
A WordPress plugin that allows website owners to easily add SSL encryption to their website. It provides automatic detection and configuration of SSL, mixed content fixing, and HTTP Strict Transport Security. Users can also enable or disable SSL for specific pages or posts. The plugin is free to download and use, and it is an essential tool for WordPress site owners who want to ensure the security of their website by adding SSL encryption.
WP Force SSL & HTTPS Redirect
Total downloads: 100,000+
Five Star Ratings: 160+
WP Force SSL helps you redirect insecure HTTP traffic to secure HTTPS one without touching any code. Just activate Force SSL and everything will be configured for you and SSL enabled. The entire site will move to HTTPS using your SSL certificate. It works with any SSL certificate. It can be free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt or a paid SSL certificate.
Conclusion:
Redirect plugins are helpful for creating custom redirect pages and protecting your users from unwanted 404 errors. They can be added to the existing settings of WordPress themes, simple pages, and even individual posts to produce new links.
Hopefully, this article will help both developers and users to find the WordPress redirect plugin that best suits their projects. A number of these plugins have unique features and will no doubt be useful for some projects out there.
Looking for more redirection plugins? Don’t forget to check out our Redirect section.
